"Dedicated To Understanding New England's Climate!"
The purpose of this site is to educate and inform the public of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO); by examining current trends & indice forecasts that will impact the New England NE Region. We will also focus on the parent-steering mechanism known as the Arctic Oscillation (AO); and other teleconnection indices.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

HIGH LATITUDE BLOCKING IN-RELATION TO THE QUASI-BIENNIAL OSCILLATION (QBO)

The Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) is changes in equatorial zonal wind between easterlies and westerlies in the tropical stratosphere. (Defined partially From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) The map above from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) demonstrates Two Phases of the QBO, which are termed East QBO & West QBO. The relationship between oscillating wind regimes and High Latitude Blocking is significant, due to changes between the easterlies & westerlies. The Easterly Phase QBO encourages high latitude blocking because westerly trade winds are weaker, while the Westerly Phase is not supportive of long-term blocking due to stronger westerlies. On February 28 to March 1, 2010 a major longwave pattern change took place over the Northern Hemisphere. This major change was also associated with a change from an East QBO to West QBO, which resulted in a complete different summer pattern during 2010 in contrast to 2009. The QBO has primarily been in a Westerly phase since the beginning of last March, which in return discourages a long-term Negative AO & NAO (associated with a classic old-fashioned March in New England.)

New England & the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)

New England NAO

As this Blog continues to grow it will be a learning experience for me, and a possible valuable source of information to the overall general public in New England. Posts prepared by me are region specific, pretaining to upcoming meteorological changes in New England. Other posts are general weather related content and from various authors.

Special thanks to John Hockridge of

New England Weather Associates &

George Trottier formerly of WMNB-WNAW

N. Adams, MA., for help making this site possible.

I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to Todd Gross of www.toddgross.com(former Chief Meteorologist of WHDH - Channel 7 Boston), for including me in his "Weather Spotter Network" - which served as a foundation for this site.

New England NAO - is dedicated in loving memory of my cousin... Peter Rowley, who recognized my true purpose in-life and was taken from us so soon.

Disclaimer

This website is for educational and informational purposes, and is NOT associated in any way to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) · National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) · or National Weather Service (NWS). Use of CPC Teleconnections (Indice Forecasts) & graphics is made available as an informative guide only, and has NOT been altered in any way. Links provided to the CPC, NCEP, & NWS are for additional informational purposes. For exclusive weather forecasts... please visit

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